Jorge Rosa, Sea Captain

| December 1, 2011 - 12:29pm

Jorge Rosa of Montauk was an officer in the Chilean Navy and later a director of operations for the Compania Sud- americana de Vapores, one of the oldest continuously operating shipping companies in the world. Mr. Rosa died at home on South Ferncroft Place on Nov. 23 at the age of 95.
“He was the definition of gentleman, and with great humor,” Mr. Rosa’s daughter, Wendy Rosa-Monda, said.
Mr. Rosa first visited Montauk in the 1950s as a guest of Jack McGowen, a resident of the Culloden area whom Mr. Rosa knew from the shipping business. During one of those visits, in the summer of 1952, he met his future wife, Emily Margaret Cubbon, who was staying on her godfather’s swordfishing boat in Montauk Harbor. The couple were married the following Christmas. She died in 2006.
The Rosas first took up residence in Bay Ridge where they raised their daughter. They later bought a house on Duryea Avenue in Montauk as a summer place and moved to Montauk permanently in 1975. Ms. Rosa-Monda said her father had had enough of being on the sea, but liked to be near it. He was a gardener who enjoyed growing vegetables, vines, and flowers. “He was not a birder, but loved birds.”
Mr. Rosa was born in Chile on Aug. 14, 1911, the son of Alexandro Rosa Salinas and the former Elvira Reed. In addition to his daughter, who lives in La Grande, Ore., Mr. Rosa is survived by a half sister who lives in Santiago, Chile.
A funeral Mass will be said at St. Therese of Lisieux Church in Montauk tomorrow at 10 a.m. Memorial contributions have been suggested for the Montauk Fire Department Ambulance Squad, 12 Flamingo Avenue, Montauk 11954.
Valaria Mary Haller, 83
Valaria Mary Haller, a year-round resident of Fieldview Lane in East Hampton, died on Nov. 6 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton, after a long battle with cancer. Mrs. Haller, who had arrived in this country in the wake of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, was 83 years old.
She was born Valaria Szajvolt in Sopron, Hungary, on July 9, 1928, and married Eugene Haller on Nov. 22, 1948. The couple escaped Soviet oppression during the uprising in the mid-1950s, arriving in Austria with only the clothes on their backs. After they received sponsorship in the United States, they first lived in Manhattan and eventually settled in Mastic Beach.
Mrs. Haller was employed for 20 years in the billing department of Brookhaven Memorial Hospital, spending summer afternoons with her husband on their boat, a 32-foot Chris-Craft. As her family grew, Mrs. Haller crocheted and sewed most of the baby blankets and comforters for her grandchildren. After retirement, she spent part of the year at her apartment on the Danube in Budapest.
Her husband died in 2002, and a daughter, Ildiko Haller Vastola, also died before her. She is survived by her son, Dr. Eugene Z. Haller of East Hampton, and five grandchildren.
Mrs. Haller’s ashes were interred at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Moriches in a private ceremony attended by close friends and family on Nov. 19.
Her family has suggested donations to East Hampton Ambulance, 1 Cedar Street, East Hampton 11937 or East End Hospice, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton 11978.